Communication

Featured Article

There are many stuttering problems for people who stutter. People with an established stutter are aware of the negative effect of repetitions, prolongations, hesitations and blocks on their speech. Their stutter (stammer) may be accompanied by facial tics and uncontrolled body movements. Stuttering can lead to the avoidance of certain activities and to social isolation.

Caregivers unconsciously modify their speech when talking to babies and infants. Sometimes known as motherese or parentese, this linguistic behavior is now commonly known as child-directed speech. It is typified by such things as the adult speaking in monologues, using grammatically simple structures and using exaggerated intonation.

Any communication model is just a conceptual framework that simplifies our understanding of the complex communication process. This article discusses a transmission model, underpinned by Information Theory, known as The Communication Chain. The three elements of production, transmission and reception are discussed. In addition, the function of the cognitive, linguistic, physiological and acoustic levels for both the agent (speaker) and recipient (listener) are explained.

Phonetics studies articulation, i.e. how the sounds of particular languages are articulated in particular contexts. This article explains the articulation of the 24 English consonants. They are categorized as either plosives, nasals, fricatives, affricates or approximants.

Phonology is the study of the rule system that governs how particular speech sounds are used to produce meaningful words. It investigates the systematic organization of sounds in a particular language. It describes the basic units of speech in any language and examines how speech sounds change when they are combined.

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. It investigates the physical properties of speech sounds, how they are produced by the vocal tract, and how people perceive these sounds. The field is typically divided into three areas: acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, and articulatory phonetics. Speech therapists are particularly concerned with articulatory phonetics.